Cool! My thoughts. Home Depot has a 30 day money back warranty. If in the first few mowing you have buyers remorse, take is back and get the Toro. For me the Honda, that Honda was such a joy to mow with. We had 3 workers on the crew. When we were told to get the Honda and mow none of us complained. Not even when we were bagging and had to dump the bad every few passes. The owner asked me how I liked the Honda. Yes I did! I asked him how he like it. Said he had a broken Toro with only a few hours on it. He had to buy the Honda. It's been great. Runs every time. Mows great. Mulches great. Bags great. But he's never used it himself. But his workers never complained about it.

Although it isn't the same mower, I recently bought the Honda HRX217HYA. I like it. My lawn is pretty new, so the grass isn't terribly thick in most places, although there are a few exceptions, but generally speaking you can't even really see the mulched clippings, which is kind of cool.

I have a honda harmony II HRS 216. Its about 10 years old. Starts first pull in the summer and takes about 10 plus pulls when the temps are lower in the spring and fall. This might be due to the fact I leave the mower in my shed. I find it strange since its the only engine I own that does that. I have 2 Briggs (Vangaurd and intek), tecumseh, subaru robin, and a kohler command engine, and all of them fire up right up regardless of the temps outside. Regardless the honda runs perfect after that and barely uses any gas.

Cut quality is ok. It you have a thick lawn and cut on the highest settings, its seems to mat the grass especially when mulching. I've used single blades, the double blades that came with the side bagger attachment, and I've used and the double mulching blades. I sharpen my blades once a season on the honda, but I only use it for the trim and cutting on steep hills where I can't use my tractor. I've gone over areas I mowed with the honda using my Cub GT3235 garden tractor and it was like I didn't even cut the grass. My honda seems to cut better when I put the side discharge chute on. If you mulch make sure you cut your lawn more often than once a week in the spring when the grass grows quick otherwise it will leave clumps.

I've had to replace the cable that engages the drive wheels 3 times, replaced the drive wheels since they were bald and that black flap at the rear of the mower. Its a decent mower but a little overpriced in my opinion. The engine will probably run forever, however the rest of the mower is average in my opinion.